Burning Up At Channel 3

Yesterday, after being prompted by one of my teammates to get race report in for the Channel 3 MTB XC race, I wrote the race report that follows this brief commentary. Today, I read the compilation of all my teammates reports. Some of the adjectives used: "Sweltering...shuffling....trudged...." And then there was one of my teammates who totally redlined and "came to a brook and laid down in it for awhile." Reading all this, I found myself asking, “Why? Are we totally nutso?” What is it about athletes that makes them go race on a day when the temps are in the 90s and the humidity is unbearable? Why did none of us just decide to stay home, kick it with a cold beer, nap on the beach do anything except ignore all the public service health announcements saying stay indoors, stay cool, and check on your elderly neighbors?

Why did I do the race? I do admit to having 2nd thoughts and debating that morning with S. Yes, I did pre-reg but $25 down the drain wasn’t exactly going to kill me. Part of it was keeping my word – I did say I would be there (but I did give myself an out and said I was only 80% sure I’d be there). I do LOVE MTB racing but honestly in Sunday’s conditions it really wasn’t pleasant. Part of it is feeling tougher than others. Sort of like that feeling when you’re out doing a long run while training for the Boston Marathon early on a Sunday February morning when it’s 10 degrees, the pavement is icy and there’s a frozen sleet pelting your cheeks, freezing to your eyelashes and you're forming snotsicles. Damn! I’m way tougher than you Sunday-morning-coffee-drinking-late-sleeping-paper-readers! (Of course, one could argue that they’re smarter.)

I do know that as a hiring manager in the software industry, faced with two identical candidates but one being an athlete and one not, I’d hire the athlete every time. That’s my personal bias. They work hard at analyzing and optimizing for incremental improvements, they enjoy it when things get a bit tougher, they’re resilient and they’re not lazy. But anyway, here’s the race report:

HOT! That’s all I can remember about the Channel 3 XC race. I kept thinking I was just going to spontaneously combust. The course was a 4 mile loop on mountain bike friendly hiking trails. The elevation gain was about 475' per lap and it felt like it all came in two climbs. I found that the downhills didn't seem to be long enough for me to recover for the next uphill. The last quarter of the course had a few rock gardens and a few stream crossings. There were also a few log barriers, sketchy bridges and sweaty roots to keep things interesting.

There were about 15 sport women on the line almost evenly split between the 19-34 and the 35+ categories. I had done the race last year and remembered enjoying it despite forgetting my helmet, glasses and gloves. With the sport race going off at high noon and the thermometer in my car registering 94 while parked in the shade, I set my goal to be 1) finish 2) ride all the technical stuff I couldn’t do last year 3) enjoy one last mtb race with Cathy (mtbiker extraordinairre) as sport and watch her school the field.

Similar to last week, I didn’t gun it at the start as I figured it was going to be a long, hot day. Typically, I love riding in the heat so I was hoping some of the others out front would fade in the last lap. First lap was my best. Since I was relatively fresh, I tackled all the more technical stuff and to my surprise rode it all very well. I passed two women one on the first hard climb and the second on the long off camber (I think the roots were freaking her out and she decided to walk it). Second lap I start questioning the wisdom of actually doing this race and not sitting on a sailboat in the harbor instead. At this point, I even debated whether I should even go out for the third lap but I haven’t DNF’d yet so figured why start now. Figured I would just go to my “happy place” and just finish.

At the end of the 2nd lap, I watched the woman in front of me that I was trying to catch go under the finish banner instead of up the ugly scree covered hill. Figured she was calling it quits. Was surprised to find her on the slight uphill after the feed zone. Not happy. Not sure what was going on there but I sure wasn’t happy that I did the hill, she didn’t and was in front of me. Grrrrrr. I think mentally, that just buried me and I really started to wilt. Was passed by one woman early on in the lap. On one of the killer hills, I decided to hell with it and hopped off the bike to walk it. Head down, pushing the bike up the hill, my HR was still at 93% and there was a steady stream of sweat just pouring out of my helmet. Yikes. Hopped back on and focused on goal #2 (ride everything). Did ok but as I got more tired, I hit the rock garden, muddy section toward the end of the lap and was getting sloppy.

Was super psyched when it was over and really happy that I’d finished. 6th place, Sport Women 35+